Reason #1: Wages Don\u2019t Match the Cost of Living<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\nDesmond says one major reason evictions are so common now is that income hasn\u2019t kept pace with the cost of living: As rent, utilities, and other necessities have become more expensive, wages have remained stagnant for the US\u2019s poorest people. <\/strong>As a result, low-income earners often struggle to pay their rent. <\/p>\n\n\n\nTo highlight this problem, Desmond explains that a standard benchmark for living comfortably is that rent should cost less than a third of a family\u2019s income. By contrast, low-income families might spend anywhere from 50% to 70% of what they earn on housing, leaving very little for food and other essentials.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\nFurthermore, saving money isn\u2019t possible with such a tight budget. This means that any unexpected or unusual expense\u2014such as an emergency room visit or a car repair\u2014can cause low-income families to fall behind on rent, leading to eviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Welfare Benefits Aren\u2019t Enough<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Desmond adds that government benefits for low-income families, collectively called welfare<\/em>, have stagnated just like wages have. As a result, these programs\u2014which are designed to help people live comfortably while unemployed or underemployed\u2014now provide barely enough for people to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe author adds that because welfare benefits are means-tested (only available to people with less than a certain amount of money and assets), those benefits discourage people from saving money even if they\u2019re able to.<\/strong> In other words, someone with low-income work and <\/em>welfare benefits might actually be able to start saving; however, if at any point they have too much in their bank account, they won\u2019t be able to collect benefits anymore. As a result, they\u2019d soon end up in an even worse financial situation than before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n